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Mary Rivard
Dr. Seals
English 102-B007
10 December 2008
La Femme Fatale Fausse
In 1939, author Raymond Chandler published his first novel entitled The Big Sleep—an
intricate story of murder, blackmail, and deceit—set in the cities of southern California. The plot
is centralized around the work of character Philip Marlowe, a private detective hired by a man
named General Sternwood to investigate a series of promissory notes used as blackmail for
payment of his daughter Carmen’s gambling debts. With a bit of sleuthing, Marlowe discovers
that Carmen has been the subject of various nude photographs taken by Arthur Gwynn Geiger,
owner of a pornographic bookstore and sender of the notes. However, the murder of Mr. Geiger
causes even more problems for Carmen, as the negatives of the photographs are stolen and also
used to blackmail the Sternwood family. Marlowe successfully recovers the photographs from
Joe Brody, who was in the process of taking over Geiger’s business, during a visit to his
apartment house. Carmen also arrives at the scene with a gun, demanding that Brody give her the
pictures and firing a shot to show she means business. With a bit of coaxing, Marlowe eventually
persuades her to return home and let him handle the situation. A second conflict involving the
disappearance of Rusty Regan, the husband of Sternwood’s eldest daughter Vivian, begins to
surface as Marlowe continues to sift through his case. An interview with the captain of the
Missing Persons Bureau leads Marlowe to believe that casino owner Eddie Mars played some
part in Regan’s disappearance, but a series of further incidents reveal otherwise. One night,
Marlowe returns to his apartment to find Carmen in his bed, attempting to seduce him into
sleeping with her. The detective is not swayed by her efforts, and proceeds to
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throw her out after she refuses to leave. At the end of the story, Carmen tries to kill Marlowe for
denying her advances, but Marlowe fills her gun with blanks in anticipation of what she would
attempt to do. After all, Marlowe had discovered that Carmen murdered Rusty Regan for the
very same reason, and her sister Vivian had known about it all along. She had asked Eddie Mars
to cover up the crime by disposing of the body in an oil well sump on the Sternwood’s property,
which in turn gave Mars the opportunity to blackmail the family. Marlowe agrees not to turn
Carmen over to the authorities as long as Vivian will send her away to receive treatment for her
irrational behavior.
The crime-filled nature of this story classifies The Big Sleep as a work of the hard-boiled
fiction genre of literature, which considers Philip Marlowe to be one of its most influential
detective characters (Big Sleep). In general, a hard-boiled plot will consist of a protagonist who
plays the hero of the story, and an antagonist who is created to be the villain. In addition, most
works of this genre also feature another type of character, a dangerously beautiful woman who
often proves to be a part of the crime, the demise of the protagonist, or even both. This woman
is most commonly labeled as the “femme fatale,” which literally translates from the French
language to mean “fatal woman,” a perfect title for such a powerful character. In The Big Sleep,
author Raymond Chandler intends for Carmen Sternwood to play the part of the femme fatale
(Femme Fatale). However, an extensive examination of the concept of the femme fatale would
reveal that there is reason to doubt whether the character of Carmen successfully embodies the
role of a true femme fatale. This essay will explore the attributes and behaviors of the femme
fatale, the origins of the concept, how it has been incorporated into various forms of visual and
media arts over the years, as well as an explanation of why Carmen Sternwood should not be
considered a genuine femme fatale.
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The femme fatale rejects traditional womanhood by going against mainstream society’s
stereotypical role of a devoted wife and loving mother that has prevailed throughout the years.
She highly values her independence because she views commitment as burdensome, therefore
she will not allow herself to be put under any man’s control. According to John Blaser,
“Marriage for the femme fatale is associated with unhappiness, boredom, and the absence of
romantic love and sexual desire.” Similarly, she does not hesitate to commit any crime,
especially murder, if it means that she will be able to maintain this independent status. In terms
of her physical characteristics, the femme fatale is irresistibly beautiful, creating a highly
charged sexual image which has the power to manipulate men into giving in to her desires. As a
result, she often uses her beauty as a tool to seduce the male sex in order to receive the pleasure
she seeks. The femme fatale is empowered by the submission of a man, who meaning virtually
nothing to her; he is only a source of sexual fulfillment or additional monetary benefits (Blaser).
Of all the men she happens to ensnare within her trap, some seem to be ignorant of her toxicity,
assuming a false sense of their own control over the relationship, a mistake they will deeply
regret in the end. Others are fully aware of the danger associated with her, but they are unable to
control their lust for such a desired object (Sherwin 177).
Although the femme fatale character may seem to be a fairly new addition to literature
and film, in actuality, the concept of the fatal woman has been explored for centuries. In her
book Evil by Design: The Creation and Marketing of the Femme Fatale, Elizabeth Menon argues
that “The femme fatale’s origins are intimately related to the biblical Eve and the narrative of the
Fall in the book of Genesis” (Menon 4). Eve was deceived by the Devil into disregarding the
command God had given her and eating the forbidden fruit, which she also gave to her husband
Adam, and he ate of it as well. As punishment for this disobedience, God threw Adam and Eve
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out of his Garden of Eden and their sin became a part of them and all of their descendants, for
mankind inherited a sinful nature which ultimately leads to death and eternal damnation (Life
Application Study Bible, Gen. 3.1-24). Although Eve is responsible in part for the downfall of
many men, a notorious fault of the femme fatale, Virginia Allen observes that, “By Christian
tradition, Eve is [considered] weak rather than willfully evil, a fallen woman more than a fatal
one,” suggesting that a transition of the definition of the femme fatale has occurred (Allen 6).
During the later decades of the nineteenth century, writers and artists began to intensify the
concept of the femme fatale in their work (1). Eve became the subject of many paintings, causing
her religious image to be secularized as more and more individuals began to theorize her
character as that of seductress as opposed to a fool. Similarly, the writings of several theologians
suggest that Eve caused the downfall of man through her sexuality, a notion that is not
specifically mentioned the Bible (Menon 18). As a result, the blame was shifted and placed
solely on Eve’s shoulders, increasing the tendency for society to label women as the sex with a
fatal and dangerous charm (20-25).
Consequently, artistic portrayals of the femme fatale were largely focused on her physical
attributes and sexual power. The nineteenth century was primarily dominated by male artists,
such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, many of whom chose to explore their fantasies of fatal women
by painting other mythical or historical figures in addition to Eve (Bade 6-9). Among these
subjects was Pandora, a woman of Greek mythology who brought evil and death into the world
by opening a jar that was given to her by the gods (13). Some variations of the story mention a
box instead of a jar, which later became recognized as a symbol of her sexuality (Menon 22).
Other Greek women depicted in numerous art forms of the time period include Helen of Troy,
Circe, and Medea, as well as additional historical dignitaries such as Cleopatra. From the Bible,
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artists found inspiration through women such as Jezebel, Delilah, and Salome (Bade 7). There
was also Lilith, a character of Jewish folklore who is said to be Adam’s first wife. She was cast
out of Eden because she refused to be submissive to Adam during intercourse. Afterward, she
was transformed into a demon and is now responsible for fostering men’s erotic dreams (Menon
19). German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe incorporated Lilith into Faust, a two-part
drama published in 1808 which concerns a man who has made a pact with the Devil. Although
she does not appear as a central character in the plot, Faust is enticed by a brief vision of her in
the distance. Mephistopheles, who represents the Devil in the story, warns him of her power
saying, “Of her rich locks beware! That charm in which she’s paralleled by few; when in its toils
a youth she does ensnare, he will not soon escape, I promise you” (Allen 21). The lethal
characteristics and alluring beauty of Lilith portrayed in Faust serve as a prototype for later
forms of the femme fatale, who became a combination of danger, death, sexual love and desire,
beauty, mischief, and destruction, only expanded to center stage (33-34).
American writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries modified the femme
fatale to suit the naturalistic nature of their literature, which portrayed life in accordance with
determinism, or the belief that man is controlled by the external forces around him; therefore he
has no free will (Sasa 8). The femme fatale of American Naturalism strives to overcome the
conventions of her heredity and environment by searching for freedom and individuality (18).
Often times, she will choose to become dangerous, destructive, or threatening as a means of
escape (26). However, she is not known to be deadly to the male sex, she merely leads them into
compromising or risky situations (7). In order to gain economic independence, the femme fatale
of this genre will utilize her sexuality instead of developing her intellectual abilities, which
contrasts with the concept of the “new woman” who seeks an education as a means of achieving
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her success (21-23). Instead, the femme fatale will once again use or abuse the men she
encounters to receive whatever she desires, but ultimately she destroys herself in the process
(24). The character of Trina Sieppe in Frank Norris’ McTeague provides an excellent example of
this type of femme fatale. McTeague is described as a brutish dentist whose behavior is
dominated by animalistic impulses to eat, sleep, and drink. He does not consider himself in need
of a woman’s company, but this soon changes after he makes the acquaintance of Trina, an
extraordinarily beautiful woman who fascinates him, enchants him, and begins to occupy his all
thoughts. Her charm arouses his sexual instincts to such as extent that he kisses her while she is
under anesthesia in his dental chair, for his attraction evokes a need for love and affection. Trina
finds a means of escape from her family by marrying McTeague, and she goes against her
inherited traits by learning from her mother’s mistakes as a wife. Trina tries to be loving and
supportive of her husband, managing to shape him into a better human being in the process.
Things begin to change after she wins the lottery and is overcome by a love of money and
irrepressible greed. McTeague loses his dental practice and Trina gains the power to control him
sexually, intellectually, and financially. In the end, McTeague brutally murders his wife as
vengeance for all of the manipulation and abuse.
The writings of Frank Norris and other Naturalist authors along with the hard-boiled
detective fiction created by Raymond Chandler and his peers influenced the development of a
new genre of American cinematic productions (Hirsch 23). The term “film noir” was first coined
postwar French film critics of the 1940’s who noticed a change in the tone of American film (8).
In fact, Foster Hirsch describes crime films of this time period as “downbeat stories of murder
and passion, of ordinary lives gone hopelessly astray” which contradict the “customary optimism
of popular American pictures.” Furthermore, Hirsch also observes that, “In these dark films,
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money and love, as well as individual enterprise, lead not to fulfillment and the happy ending,
but to crime and death” (9). During the time of World War II, women were forced to enter the
job market in place of their men who were serving in the military. Film noir connected with this
societal change, transforming the image of the “new woman” into a negative one. Hirsch makes
these comments regarding the typical female character portrayed in film noir: “[She is] a wicked,
scheming creature, sexually potent and deadly to the male. The dark thrillers record an abiding
fear of strong women, women who steer men off of their course, beckoning them to a life of
crime, or else so disrupting their emotional poise that they are unable to function.” By depicting
women in this manner, noir films were severely distorting reality and promoting an anti-woman
bias which was strongly criticized by those of the Feminist movement (19-20). Nevertheless, this
adaption of the femme fatale remained an integral part of any noir plot.
Films featuring the femme fatale had a useful advantage over writers who were limited to
describing her beauty and behavior with words. Noir Actresses dominated the big screen with
their visual appeal, controlling the gaze of the camera, her audience, and masculine prey (Place
55-6). The performances of Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice, as well as that of
Rita Hayworth in Gilda or Lady from Shanghai serve as fair examples of the power possessed by
the female characters of the genre. But, perhaps the most quintessential example of the femme
fatale of film noir would be Phyllis Dietrichson of Double Indemnity, played by Barbara
Stanwyck, who exploits her sexuality to lure insurance agent Walter Neff into helping her
murder her husband in order to escape her boredom with married life. They make his death look
like an accident in order to receive double the money from his life insurance policy. Neff falls in
love with Phyllis, but in the final scenes of the film, she confesses that she never really loved him
and injures him with a gunshot, but is unable to finish him off. They proceed to embrace; only
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Neff shoots her, killing Phyllis in revenge for her manipulation and deceit. The plot was adapted
from the novel Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, another famous author of hard-boiled
fiction (Johnston 89). In fact, many film noir productions were based off of crime stories of the
early twentieth century, including Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep.
The controversial nature of the femme fatale became even more obscene when she
reappeared on the big screen in a series of erotic thrillers released in the early 1990’s. As a
character of postmodern cinema, the femme fatale of “neo-noir” is motivated by an insatiable
appetite for money, power, and sex (Stables 170). In comparing this genre with the classic film
noir, Kate Stables observes that, “classic film noir sexualized its heroines through highly coded
glamour, and an armory of visual iconography arranged to signal sex and define her as a sexual
presence,” whereas the new femme fatale is redefined as a sexual performer participating in softcore pornography on the screen (172-3). Likewise, the new femme fatale lacks proper sexual
shame, using blatant and explicit sexual speech without any discretion (174-5). Once again, the
men of neo-noir are nothing more than objects used by the women to accomplish their own ends,
suggesting that their desire is staged to deceive a male lover, who may falsely assume that he is
in control of the relationship (Sherwin 176-7). Melissa Sherwin attests that, “In these films, men
do not inhabit the space that they seem to inhabit. Their desirability is delusion; their control is
illusion” (178). Sherwin also suggests that the femme fatales of neo-noir do not necessarily need
heterosexual intercourse to fulfill their desires; therefore they are known to expand their sexual
practices to include sadomasochistic acts (177).
The film Basic Instinct focuses on the investigation of a murdered rock star that was
stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex. The prime suspect is Catherine Tramell, described
by Kate Stables as “an orphaned, homicidal maniac heiress who writes best-selling thrillers and
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flaunts her aggressively flexible sexuality” (Stables 172). Nick Curran, the detective placed in
charge of the case, begins an affair with Tramell that begins to convince him of her innocence.
Instead, he is led to believe that psychiatrist Elizabeth Garner, who had a sexual encounter with
Tramell in college, is responsible for the murder. Curran shoots Garner in self-defense and ends
the film in bed with Tramell, both discussing the future of their relationship. However, the
camera pans downward to show an ice pick hiding under the bed, revealing that Tramell is the
real murderer who killed the rock star and used Curran to get revenge on Garner, who rejected
her advances in college. The lesbianism of Catherine Tramell exposed the femme fatale in a
whole new light but reinforced the power of her sexual attraction, as most of the women
characters in the film had experienced some sort of sexual encounter with her at one point or
another (172). And lastly, the ability of Tramell to escape a conviction of her crime shows that
new femme fatale is indestructible, whereas the femme fatales of film noir usually meet their
demise by the end of story (171).
As previously stated, Raymond Chandler attempts to incorporate the femme fatale of his
time period into his novel, The Big Sleep. However, a comparison of his femme fatale, the
character Carmen Sternwood, to the lethal characteristics of a genuine fatal woman exposes
some noticeable and significant differences between the two. Although Carmen is obsessed with
her rather nymphomaniac desires to engage in sexual activity, she is frequently thwarted by
refusals, and Detective Philip Marlowe proves to be no exception (Marling 203). It is clear that
Carmen overestimates the power of her physical attraction. Marlowe often insults her while
narrating the events of the story, making comments such as, “She was just a dope. To me she
was always just a dope” (Chandler Big Sleep 22). From the moment he first meets Carmen
during his initial visit to General Sternwood, Marlowe is annoyed by her mannerisms of giggling
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and biting and sucking on her thumb. She acts like a child with a limited vocabulary, therefore
Marlowe proceeds to treat her as one, only she is considers this “cute” rather than offensive
(Linder). However, her infatuation with Marlowe soon turns to anger on the night she sneaks into
his apartment. Marlowe will not sleep with her, and the sight of her naked body does not even
begin to convince him otherwise. He persistently asks her to get dressed, but she refuses to
comply, and Marlowe observes that, “It’s so hard for women--even nice women--to realize that
their bodies are not irresistible” (Chandler Big Sleep 95). After she leaves, Marlowe “savagely”
tears the bed to pieces in disgust. In contrast, prior examples of the femme fatale have always
succeeded in seducing their targeted men. In fact, these males find themselves so helplessly
captivated by her beauty or sexuality that they are unable to maintain self-control. In addition,
Carmen tries to employ “the eye” with Marlowe on several occasions, only he is left standing as
the unaffected object of her gaze. Marlowe sarcastically describes her efforts in the following
words: “She looked at me under her long lashes. This was the look that was supposed to make
me roll over on my back” (131). In actuality, this gaze, when used effectively, would have the
power to display desire, cause discomfort, and pose a threat to those around her (Doane 27).
Marlowe makes it clear that Carmen’s look has no effect on him whatsoever. He ends the story
as honorable hero, just as he began. Concisely, the fact that Carmen is unable to successfully
arouse and attract Detective Philip Marlowe proves that she cannot be considered a true femme
fatale.
In conclusion, the femme fatale is a woman who goes against the restrictions placed upon
her by society and uses her physical attractiveness to get what she wants out of life. She refuses
to be submissive to a man, avoiding marriage and motherhood at all costs. The biblical origins of
the concept were portrayed in various art forms of the nineteenth century, along with other
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female subjects who influenced the modern definition of the femme fatale. Writers of American
Naturalism modified the femme fatale to contrast with the “new woman” who began to emerge
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Hard-boiled fiction, such as the works of
Raymond Chandler, heavily influenced the genre of film noir, which gave the cinematic
productions of the 1940’s and 50’s a distinctly darker feel than previous crime stories on the big
screen. Noir made a comeback in the early 90’s with a series of erotic thrillers that took the
femme fatale to a whole new level. Today, she remains a potent mixture of danger, death,
sexuality, beauty, mischief, and destruction. And lastly, although hard-boiled fiction is one of the
best settings for a femme fatale to do her dirty work, Raymond Chandler did not include a true
femme fatale in the plot of his novel The Big Sleep. In fact, this in-depth examination of the
femme fatale and the evolution of her portrayal in paintings, literature, and film confirms that the
character of Carmen Sternwood does indeed differ significantly from the archetypal fatal
woman, who will continue to captivate audiences for years to come.
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Works Cited
Allen, Virginia M. The Femme Fatale : Erotic Icon. Troy, NY: Whitston Company,
Incorporated, 1983.
Bade, Patrick. Femme Fatale: Images of Evil and Fascinating Women. New York: Mayflower
Books, Inc., 1979.
Blaser, John. "The Femme Fatale." Film Noir Studies. 18 Nov. 2008
<http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/no_place5.asp>.
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. 1-139. The Raymond Chandler Omnibus. New York: Alfred
A. Knoff, Inc., 1964.
Doane, Mary A. Femme Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis. New York:
Routledge, 1991.
Hirsch, Foster. Dark Side of the Screen : Film Noir. New York: Da Capo Press, Incorporated,
2001.
Johnston, Claire. "Double Indemnity." Women in Film Noir. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. Grand Rapids:
BFI, 1999. 89-98.
Life Application Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, Inc., 1995.
Linder, Daniel. "Chandler's The Big Sleep." Explicator 59 (2001): 137-40. MLA International
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<https://ezproxy.uwc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&
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Marling, William. "Femme Fatale." 6 June 2007. Case Western Reserve University. 25 Nov.
2008 <http://www.detnovel.com/femmefatale.html>.
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Marling, William. The American Roman Noir : Hammett, Cain and Chandler. New York:
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Place, Janey. "Women in Film Noir." Women in Film Noir. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. Grand Rapids:
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Sherwin, Miranda. "Deconstructing the Male: Masochism, Female Spectatorship, and the Femme
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Stables, Kate. "The Postmodern Always Rings Twice: Constructing the Femme Fatale in 90s
Cinema." Women in Film Noir. Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. Grand Rapids: BFI, 1999. 164-82.
Suleiman Sasa, Ghada. The Femme Fatale in American Literature. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press,
2008.